1

Is Elon Musk A Modern Genius?

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Course Name

Professor’s Name

Due Date
IS ELON MUSK A MODERN GENIUS? 2

Is Elon Musk A Modern Genius?

The term “genius” implies a person with exceptional abilities or skills, especially in a

specified field like arts or engineering. Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla, is a

leading figure in the firm’s success and has constantly played a vital role in improving future

cars. Elon Musk is undoubtedly an exceptional figure in the present generation. This paper tries

to justify why Elon Musk is an excellent example of modern genius.

Elon Musk is a person who has succeeded in creating a three billion-dollar business that

has been thriving under his headship. The most prominent of these firms is Tesla motors, but

other firms under Elon Musk entail SolarCity and SpaceX. Tesla Motors is an electric car firm

that Elon incorporated in 2003 and has a 30% shareholding in the firm, which is approximately

valued at $1 billion (Melby, 2012). SpaceX is a firm that focuses on creating recycled rockets

and reducing the cost of traveling to space. SolarCity is another firm that Elon owns, with a more

significant shareholding by his cousin Lyndon Rive. SolarCity is chiefly engaged in the design

and installation of solar panels and solar systems. The firm is estimated to be $1.5 billion as of

2012.

Elon Musk, through Tesla motors, has changed the insight of automobiles and provided

other firms stiff competitive edge. Tesla Motors is a well-known firm globally for producing

electric cars, and this is a name accredited to its idealistic founder. Elon has been known to go

extreme, such as working day and night at the firm’s factory to guarantee success. In the year

2017, for example, Elon is believed to have spent much time at the firm’s factory in Fremont,

California (Ganjoo, 2018). His dreams at the time were to create a completely automated factory.

Elon was highly focused on getting the factory working to a level that he fired his engineer for
IS ELON MUSK A MODERN GENIUS? 3

not responding to concerns about system irregularity. His sort of obstinacy is unusual and is what

has permitted the firm to be successful.

Elon Musk is a technology expert due to his engineering expertise, making him the

company’s chief executive officer, with skills linked to developing systems. These skills make

him well informed in electrical component creation; hence he is in a position of involving

himself in every product developed by his firms. These attributes make him a different chief

executive officer because most of them concern themselves with the plans and business point of

view and employ people to manage the technical aspect (Melby, 2012). The chief executive

officer of Space, Gwynne Shotwell, finds this kind of skill extraordinary because it gives him the

ability to recommend some technical solution that other chief executive officers would not be

able to recommend.

Elon Musk is ultimately an extraordinary person with technical and leadership skills. He

has managed to invest in capital-intensive industries like automobiles and rockets production and

was successful. His skills are certainly exceptionally in the field of engineering, which makes

one conclude that Elon Musk is undoubtedly a modern genius.

IS ELON MUSK A MODERN GENIUS? 4

References

Melby, C. (2012, April 17). How Elon Musk became a billionaire twice over.

Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmelby/2012/03/12/how-elon-musk-became-

a-billionaire-twice-over/#66aca8501c88

Shweta Ganjoo. (2018, December 17). Elon Musk is a genius but working with him is messy,

say Tesla employees. India

Today. https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/elon-musk-is-a-genius-but-

working-with-him-is-messy-say-tesla-employees-1409768-2018-12-14